User reviews

Naughty schoolgirls, perverted killers and unorthodox police officers… What more could you possibly hope to see in a late 70's Italian Giallo, apart from perhaps some large portions of graphic nudity and gritty bloodshed? Well, "Rings of Fear" has ALL of this (and more…), but still it certainly doesn't rank among the best efforts in this wondrous sub genre of horror. Even though no less than SIX persons are credited as scriptwriters, this film undoubtedly is the weakest installment in Massimo Dallamano's trilogy revolving on "Schoolgirls in Peril". The unofficial franchise began magnificently, with "What Have You Done To Solange?" – arguably one of the best Gialli ever made – but already lowered in quality a bit with "What Have They Done To Our Daughters", which felt more like a crime film with loads of car chases and gangster networks. "Rings of Fear", however, features the least amount of surprises and shocks and painfully suffers from the one demerit Gialli should never suffer from: predictability! Dallamano and his army of co-writers attempt to mislead us with red herrings and mysteriously behaving side characters, but even if you're only just slightly familiar with the standard Giallo trademarks, you can see right through every plot twist and easily unravel the identity of the culprit(s) yourself. It nevertheless remains a worthwhile horror gem for Italian horror fanatics to purchase, though, if it were only to behold the awkward and thoroughly unorthodox investigation methods Insp. Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) uses to unmask his sleazy killer. Di Salvo is charged with the case of an attractive 16-year-old schoolgirl who was raped and sadistically cut open with a large sharp weapon. The victim's witty younger sister informs him that Angela, along with three of her boarding school girlfriends, formed a secret alliance known as "The Inseparables" and frequently escaped from their dorm to serve as lustful & sexy entertainment for rich businessmen. Di Salvo knows where to look for the killer, but due to some of the suspects' prominent reputations the commissioner holds him back. "Rings of Fear" is an overall amusing Giallo because the story contains so many odd & unusual sub plots. For example, the inspector's girlfriend is a notorious shoplifter and his own interrogation techniques are rather ingenious, to say the least. He invades the boarding school in the middle of the night to question the scarcely dressed teachers and even drags his main suspect onto a wild roller coaster to force him to testify. The gorgeous (barely legal?) teenage girls provide this film with a more than fair amount of full-frontal nudity and lusciousness; while the light-hearted dialogs and Testi's utterly cool performance contribute in making "Rings of Fear" easy and undemanding viewing. The exciting score is courtesy of Riz Ortolani ("Cannibal Holocaust") and Alberto Negrin's direction is overall competent. Recommended viewing for trained Italian sleaze-fanatics, but newcomers to the Giallo-industry should probably postpone their viewing of "Rings of Fear" until they've seen some of the works of Dario Argento and Sergio Martino, or Massimo Dallamano's initial masterpiece "What Have You Done To Solange?".

I like giallos a lot, and this one was pretty good, but in some ways it could have been better. I still need to see "What Have They Done To Your Daughters" and "What Have They Done To Solange", as I've heard those two entries are a lot better than this concluding entry, which is also known as "Trauma", "Rings of Fear", and "Virgin Terror". It starts out pretty good, with the mutilated body of a teen girl named Angelo being discovered, and Inspector Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) is assigned to find her killer, before he "carves up someone else". Basically, it goes on with him questioning Angelo's friends and family and finding strange clues, such as a diary, a strange cat sketch, a lot of money, as well as many secrets kept hidden by Angelo's friends, a bunch of slutty schoolgirls named Franca, Paola, and Virginia, who call themselves the inseparables. Di Salvo does more digging and recovers many more strange things. There is a funky groovy score by Riz Ortolani, lots of red herrings, good acting, and a fun first half, but then the second half of the film kind of falls apart. The motives of the killer(s) are confused and come off as kind of laughable. Then, there are a few more strange events that lead up to a conclusion that leaves you uttering one single word: "What?". It is basically confusing. I had to rewind the last fifteen or twenty minutes and watch it again. Overall, if you're a hardcore giallo fan, go for it...but for others, you may just be bored. Hopefully the other entries in the series are better than this one!

Even though he only shares a writing credit with five other people, Red Rings of Fear is credited as being the third instalment of Massimo Dallamano's unofficial 'Schoolgirls in Peril' series; the masterpiece What Have They Done to Solange and the disappointing What They Done to Our Daughters being the other two. I went into this film with low expectations after seeing the second part of the 'trilogy', and unfortunately Red Rings of Fear only lived up to those expectations as while it has its moments, the film is certainly no masterpiece. For one reason or another, Dallamano himself hasn't directed this film, and the honour of the director's chair has fallen to the lesser known Alberto Negrin. The film retains the sleazy atmosphere that the first two delighted in, and once again focuses on schoolgirls. Red Rings of Fear starts with the discovery of a young girl's corpse. After being put on the case, Inspector Gianni Di Salvo soon learns that the girl was a part of a school clique known as 'The Inseparables', and a plot revolving around rich men paying them for sex soon unfolds.

The film stars Fabio Testi, who also took the lead role in the far better 'What Have they Done to Solange'. I've seen Testi in a handful of Italian films, and he always impresses me. His chiselled good looks benefit this film as it's easy to see him at the centre of a sleazy plot, and his performance bodes well with the rest of the film. He receives decent backup from a trio of teenage actresses, as well as child star Fauta Avelli, who has worked with the likes of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento in the past. Any film focusing on teenage girls, murder and loss of innocence is bound to be sleazy; and director Alberto Negrin does well in capturing gritty locations and upping the sleaze quota. However, the plotting isn't very well done and often becomes hard to follow - and the film also focuses too much on police procedure and not enough on the style. There are a few decent murder scenes in the film, but none of them are particularly well executed and it often feels as though the director wants to get them over with as quickly as possible, which is a shame. The resolution to the murders is good, although the killer has become obvious by that point; and I really hated how the film ends entirely. On the whole; Red Rings of Fear is slightly better than What Have they Done to Our Daughters, but nowhere near as good as Solange. I'd like to rate this higher, but it has too many problems.

Far from terrible, but also far from terribly exciting, this Giallo should have had much more bite as its predecessors in the "school girl trilogy", Massimo Dallamo's "Cosa Avente Solange" and "La Polizia chiede aiuto". Blame must go to Alberto Negrin's tame direction and Testi's slow-moving "investigation" that severely dulls the sparse suspense. The are fair scenes where Negrin displays some flair in the film, but it is not difficult to spot the Argento influence, particularly "Cat O' Nine Tails." Apparently Negrin mostly helmed television before "Rosso" which might explain his limited palette. Dallamo's painterly hand is severely missed, but a few intriguing ideas such as the slutty trio of girls "the Insperables" and a hilariously improbable killer make "Enigma Rosso" worth watching at least once if you can find it.

Alberto Negrin's "Enigma Rosso" (aka. "Rings Of Fear"/"Virgin Killer") of 1978 is a sleazy and entertaining, but overall not too memorable Giallo effort that was co-written by the great Massimo Dallamano. And the film does indeed bear Dallamano's handwriting as the theme is quite similar to Dallamano's directorial works, "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" and "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto", only that this film can not nearly reach the brilliance of the aforementioned films. "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" (aka. "What Have You Done To Solange") of 1972 is a masterpiece that easily ranks among the greatest Gialli ever made, and while "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto" (aka. What Have They Done To Our Daughters" of 1974 is not quite as brilliant a film it is nonetheless a great mixture of Giallo and Poliziottesco that no fan of Italian genre cinema could afford to miss. "Enigma Rosso" also follows the 'crazy ripper targets naughty schoolgirls' premise, but with a lot less style and imagination this time. Nonehteless, "Enigma Rosso" is an entertaining film which is recommendable to Giallo-buffs exclusively for its sleaziness.

When the mutilated body of a teenage schoolgirl is found, homicide detective Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) begins to investigate in the girl's posh boarding school, and finds out there are lots of sleazy things going on... Fabio Testi is well cast as the rough and tough, but overall kind-hearted copper. Testi always delivers solid performances (his doubtlessly greatest film being "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange") and he fits very well in his role here. Apart from Testi, the cast also includes Christine Kaufmann ("The Last Days Of Pompeii") and Jack Taylor, who is probably best known among my fellow Exploitation buffs as a regular in the films of Jess Franco. Some of the female cast members are very beautiful, and they all tend to get naked on every possible occasion. This, and a range of perversions make the film recommendable to all the lovers of the sleazier Gialli out there. The murders are not as nasty as I thought, they'd be, but not too tame either. There is also a 'funny' (and somewhat silly) subplot about the inspector and his sexy girlfriend (played by beautiful Christine Kaufmann) who happens to be a kleptomaniac. The score by Riz Ortolani is more than decent, but not one of his best, and neither highly memorable for Giallo standards. The photography is very good. Overall, "Enigma Rosso" is recommendable enough to my fellow Giallo-fans, but it is by no means a must-see. The film definitely entertains, but I strongly recommend to see "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto" and especially "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" before this one. One more aspect that deserves to be mentioned about this one: "Enigma Rosso" includes the arguably coolest jeans advertisement poster ever seen on film.

Marginally better than average giallo centres on an exclusive girl's school where the studies include mass orgies, gory retributions and murder. Detective (Testi) is called to investigate the brutal murder of a student and begins to suspect there's more going on at the school than just maths & science. A familiar trail is uncovered, highlighting several likely suspects (ubiquitous Euro horror ex-pat American, Jack Taylor primarily) who may or may not be the actual killer. There's also a neat little twist in the film's double-headed climax, although arguably, it could've been more effectively resolved.

Testi is a likable leading man, his portly sidekick Bruno Alessandro also effective as they use unconventional methods in an attempt to solve the politically sensitive case. Jack Taylor is typically sinister as a sleazy fashion guru (the roller-coaster scene memorable), and Ivan Desny prominent as the police chief. Unusually, the dubbing isn't bad and doesn't detract so much from the film like others of the ilk. There's a fair quota of skin on display here, and the occasional ghastly corpse will heighten the senses.

Director Negrin displays a solid appreciation for the sub-genre and while it's probably not strictly giallo for the puritanical fan, it serves the purpose well and maintains the mystery and suspense through to the dual climax.

I saw a black glove, I saw Italian names on the credit so what do we have, a giallo. I have seen a few but I can't understand why everybody says that this is a sleazy one. And why is everybody referring to the nudity especially the shower scene with all the school girls. There is nudity but i have seen more in other giallo's and even more explicit then here. There is indeed full frontal nudity but not that makes you go reach for the Kleenex. Even the ending was a bit dull for me. What was good was that you didn't have the typical dubbed sound effects like in so many Italian flicks. No exaggerated winds or footsteps. But it lacks also on the gore or blood for me. But I must say that I watched it on a bad copy with a very bad sound and washed out colors, maybe that's also a reason why I don't love it. But I'm used to watch old VHS sleaze. But for me it wasn't sleaze, just a giallo, no more no less

Yet another film in the Drive-in 50-pack collection. This film is known as Trauma, Rings of Fear and Enigma rosso (Virgin Killer). It's really just meh in my book. It's not a good film... really on the awful side but there is a so-so story that is tolerable to watch.

As with a lot of these types of B and Z rated 1970s films, you will see a bit of soft-core porn. It's there just as a time filler and to get viewers I believe - otherwise its not necessary to have in the film. This film does have quite a bit of it.

Really not a good film but, again, there is a barely tolerable story that's so-so that might be of interest to some.

2/10

Co-written by Massimo Dallamano, this is the third film in the thematic 'schoolgirls in peril' trilogy. The first two films – What Have You Done to Solange and What Have They Done to Your Daughters – were directed by Dallamano himself and are among the upper bracket of the giallo sub-genre as a whole. Trauma, on the other hand, was only co-written by Dallamano, its director was the much less known Alberto Negrin. It would only be fair to say that it's clearly the least essential entry of the three. However, as is the way with most gialli, it's still pretty involving and entertaining.

The story follows a detective who is investigating the rape and murder of a young girl. On the back of this other murders start. This is one of those gialli that is quite heavy on the police procedural side of things, with less emphasis on the various shady characters on the periphery of the story. It more or less gets away with this as Fabio Testi - who plays the cop - is a good presence. The movie overall lacks the sense of style and tight plotting of the first two films but it ramps up the sleaze factor with extended shower scenes and a sex-party that incorporates the use of a somewhat prominent dildo. Of course, the very fact that the young ladies in this are members of a girl school merely adds to the overall shadiness! The murder-mystery is certainly good enough, although admittedly by-the-numbers for this sort of movie. Perhaps surprisingly, the violence has been played down somewhat. Murder scenes are often very important in gialli but in this instance they aren't memorable at all and certainly not graphic in any way. It's more focused on the mystery and this is eventually wrapped up in a slightly unpredictable way it has to be said and for that it does receive plus points. Additionally, Riz Ortolani's soundtrack is once again very good and adds a lot to accentuate the suspense.

This rather obscure giallo is relatively tame in terms of gore, but gets its creepiness from certain plot elements, like the young age of some important characters. The plot has too many suspects to keep track of and is difficult to follow at times, but that's not surprising considering that SIX (!) people worked on the script. Add some high-grade nudity from some VERY beautiful schoolgirls, a bizarre method of interrogation (choking the suspect while on a wild roller-coaster ride!), and a perfectly functional Fabio Testi performance in the lead and you have an uneven but creepy giallo. Too bad I only saw a badly cropped version of it, called "Trauma". (**1/2)

Enigma rosso (1978)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) is called to a location where the mutilated body of a teenage girl has been discovered. There aren't too many clues but the girl's young sister tells the inspector of some of her sister's girlfriends who were a part of some sort of pact.

ENIGMA ROSSO is the third and final film in the unofficial "schoolgirls in peril" series, which also featured WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE? and WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? Both of those films were much better than this final entry, which is a pretty good showcase as to why the giallo was drying up around this period. Unlike the previous two films, this one here is just a flat mess that really doesn't have too much going for it.

Like the previous two movies this one here deals with a rather dark and perverted storyline but very little is actually done with it. There's some nudity scattered throughout the picture but for the most part the death scenes are extremely awful and not very memorable. The plot is also rather confusing and is just never interesting enough to grab your attention. The one saving grace is the performance of Testi who at least offers up a nice laid back character.

Released in 1978, "Virgin Terror" (aka "Red Rings of Fear," Rings of Fear" or "Trauma") is a murder mystery starring Fabio Testi as a Detective who investigates a murder at a Catholic Girl's school in Rome.

The protagonist is effective with his Hollywood good looks. My title blurb describes the movie as "Dirty Harry in Rome" because it's reminiscent of those 70's flicks, although it naturally has a European flavor and there's no subplot about the detective being disillusioned by the libertine politics manacling the police force. This was the third film in the 'schoolgirls in peril' trilogy, the first two being "What Have You Done to Solange?" (1972) and "What Have They Done to Your Daughters?" (1974). The big reveal at the end made me bust out laughing. Why Sure!

Unfortunately, the editing is amateurish, like a lot of 70's low-budget Euro flicks; it's just awkwardly done and takes you right out of the movie. Pictures like this make you praise Hammer Films in all their low-budget glory. Also, the DVD that I viewed (which is probably the only form of the movie available) had terrible audio and I could only make out about 50% of the dubbed verbiage; no kidding.

An Italian/Spanish/German production, the film runs 78 minutes. It was directed by Alberto Negrin from a script by Massimo Dallamano (amongst others).

GRADE: C

Fabio Testi certainly played some unorthodox 'heroes' in these Giallo films. Here he's a police inspector who is quite happily having an implied affair with a habitual shoplifter. No wonder little Fauta Avelli says, "I don't know if I can trust you."

'Red Rings of Fear' is actually the final film in a 'schoolgirls in peril' trilogy, which also included the superior 'What Have they Done to Solange?' and completed with the mediocre 'What Have They Done to our Daughters?', and with an umbrella title like that, you know the level of sleaze you're wading into.

A group of teenage girls known as The Inseparables seem to know more than they're letting on regarding a recent murder, and so - purely in the line of duty, Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Testi) turns his (professional) attention onto them.

Giallis are often accompanied by a memorable score, often by Ennio Morricone, Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai or as here, Riz Ortolani, who fills his soundtrack with ambient thumps and crashes rather than infectious melodies.

The ending is both a surprise and a shock and proves to be the highlight of an entertaining, but middling, Giallo film. My score is 6 out of 10.

Fabio Testi and the blood-red secret

A Giallo shocker with the German-Austrian GOLDEN GLOBE winner Christine KAUFMANN (1945-2017) in the leading role! What a joy! But disappointment is approaching: after a few scenes, she disappears from the film as FabioTESTI's kleptomaniac friend, virtually without a trace. Luckily we saw her swimming beforehand. ;-)

What is it about? It is well known that boarding schools are often not celebratory. Precocious students, creepy teachers! The worst is of course the German teacher (Tony Isbert), it's clear! In any case, a few murders happen among the young girls (one of them is Tommi Ohrner's sister Carolin), and the good TESTI is the detective.

The successful German producer Artur BRAUNER (1918-2019) co-produced the whole thing, and Peter BERLING was involved in the script. Helga LINE with her Elke Sommer memorial hairstyle and Ivan DESNY act very convincingly as the correct public prosecutor. This giallo offers a lot of warm-up stuff, but - also because of a successful twist at the end - is definitely worth seeing!

Alberto Negrin's 1978 giallo "Enigma Rosso" (also known as "Rings of Fear" or "Virgin Killer") is a serviceable but ultimately forgettable entry in the genre. While it delivers the requisite doses of sleaze and violence, the film fails to leave a lasting impression due to its pedestrian execution.

The plot follows Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) as he investigates the brutal murder of a young Catholic schoolgirl. As the investigation progresses, Di Salvo uncovers a seedy underbelly of sex, drugs, and corruption, leading him down a twisted path of deception and danger.

Negrin's direction is competent but lacks the stylistic flair that distinguishes the best giallo offerings. The pacing is uneven, with stretches of tedium punctuated by occasional bursts of graphic violence and nudity. The murder set-pieces, while grisly, lack the inventiveness and visual panache that made the works of Dario Argento and Mario Bava stand out.

Fabio Testi delivers a solid performance as the gruff and world-weary Di Salvo, but the supporting cast is largely forgettable. The film's attempts at social commentary on the corruption of youth and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church feel heavy-handed and underdeveloped.

While "Enigma Rosso" delivers the requisite thrills and titillation that giallo fans expect, it ultimately fails to rise above the level of a disposable B-movie. The plot is convoluted and derivative, and the film lacks the artistic vision or technical prowess to elevate it beyond its exploitative roots.

For die-hard giallo enthusiasts, "Enigma Rosso" may hold some appeal as a curiosity piece, but casual viewers are unlikely to find much of lasting value in this middling thriller.

An improvement on Daughters, but falls short of Solange

The plot is all over the place. There are so many ideas at play here! For the most part, these various strands are woven together well-enough... which is quite impressive given all the writers working on this thing. There is a subplot for everyone! But most of them don't lead anywhere. The atmosphere and setting are well done. There are likeable characters. The violence is on the lackluster side. Overall, there's enough good stuff at play here to make this a slightly better than average giallo.

What a shame, it could have been so great, Massimo Dallamano directed the brilliant What Have You Done to Solange (1972) and then the okay What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974). The first one a lovely giallo and the second a Poliziottesco and gialli mix but he goes and dies in a car crash in 1976 with the film not finished. Even with various others and we end up with Alberto Negrin which he clearly does the best he can. There are some great bits as a giallo and Fabio Testi who was in the first of the trilogy was wonderful. I liked the body in the plastic and over the dam and the marbles as another killing but rather rushed. I loved the sexy virgins and the letters and the rather nasty sleazy bits and the trams and the young girl, Fausta Avelli, good to see Helga Line. The best bits are those with Fabio Testi, the rest is disappointing and rather sadly like the soundtrack as well.

A young sixteen year old girl is found dead in a river sexually violated with a blunt instrument.Inspector Di Salvo investigate this vicious and senseless crime in St Theresa's boarding school for girls.Unknown black gloved killer called Nemesis begins preying on girls from the school.It seems that there is a vice ring where rich and influential men pay well for teenage favours.The final installment of Massimo Dallamano's schoolgirls-in-peril giallo trilogy offers some delicious sleaze and full-frontal nudity.The pace is brisk and the school shower scene is truly gratuitous.There are some stylish shots for example an underwater shot from the corpse's point-of-view.Riz Ortolani's score is as always fantastic.8 nubile schoolgirls out of 10.

I purchased the German DVD released by Eyecatcher Movies. The picture quality is decent (in terms of sharpness, grain, color, etc.) but it is cropped (moreso on 4x3 TVs).

It was released in Germany in 2008 by Eyecatcher Movies and/or New Entertainment as "Orgie des Todes / Enigma Rosso." The disc has German, English and Spanish audio (DD 2.0 - mono/stereo?) and German subtitles. It may be uncut, as the box lists 84 minutes. I don't know many details about PAL/NTSC conversion, but know that PAL running times are slightly longer when played in NTSC.

The case SAYS that it is 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. It is not. It is cropped to 1.85:1 or maybe even 1.66:1. You get better compositions and picture info than the mid-80s Wizard Video release, but when you can't read all of the opening titles, you know it is still cropped. But it sure beats a full-screen transfer of a 2.35:1 film, which is all that I had seen until I got this disc.

*My ratings score (5) was for the DVD transfer/quality rather than the film, which I like more than a "5."

*** I was watching it (when I wrote this) on a "regular" TV. The aspect ratio appears closer to 2.35:1 on a widescreen TV, but there IS some cropping which can be seen in the opening credits (words extending beyond screen).***

The winningly dynamic vintage slasher, 'Red Rings of Fear' aka 'Enigma Rosso' (1978)remains a deliciously lurid Giallo treat, starring Euro-cult legend, and all round swarthy dreamboat Fabio Testi. And in this specific instance, the ubiquitous, and not just a little bit fabulous Testi, excels once more in his boisterous portrayal of the prototypically hard-nosed, libidinous detective, Gianni di salvo. In this briskly-paced, blissfully blood-thirsty thriller, di salvo stoically attempts to unravel the colourfully enigmatic motives behind an especially brutal and sinister series of sexually motivated killings with a laudable excess of gritty, inebriate resolve! Ably scripted by Massimo Dallamano it is, perhaps, inevitably similar in downbeat tone to his equally exploitative and profoundly exhilarating 'What Have They Done to Your Daughters'. 'Red Rings of Fear' is thankfully another wild, wickedly entertaining entry in the gleefully gaudy cannon of sensationalist 70s Italian sinema! Giallo/Euro-cult fans old and new should find this zesty, prurient mélange of garish misogyny, and gratuitous nudity a sleazily disturbing diversion; while director Alberto Negrin's salacious 'Red Rings of Fear' cannot be said to be an especially innovative, nor demonstratively stylish Euro-slasher, it nonetheless remains an entirely slinky, frequently funky example of the increasingly popular genre of black-gloved Gialli, and is therefore highly recommended to mustard-keen Gialli fans, old and new!

Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) is on the case of a 16 year old girl found battered to death and wrapped in plastic. Di Salvo finds plenty of suspects among her friends and the faculty of her private school. Since the school is run by the Church, Di Salvo is pressured to close the case quickly, solved or not.

Then, more murders occur.

RED RINGS OF FEAR is an engaging police procedural / giallo. The requisite black-gloved killer is shown in a novel way, accentuating one body part while not disclosing the person's identity.

While there is copious nudity, the most disturbing part of the film involves alternating scenes between an orgy and an abortion. The two do not go well together. At all...